A 1930s Fashion History Lesson: Goddess Gowns, Surrealism, and More Trends of the Escapist Era

“‘Take off that stiff girdle,’ your vendeuse orders sternly. ‘You can’t be fitted into that. It makes you into a tube.’” And with that, came the 1930s! Just half a decade prior, the tubular look was the cat’s pajamas, but, per Vogue’s feature “The Figure Then the Frock,” in its April 15, 1931 edition, this new era was all about the glorious female form. The natural curvature the flapper tried so hard to distract from was now a woman’s prize possession.

“Vionnet started it all,” the article continues, “with her dresses that wrap and cling.” If the 1920s birthed a new Art Deco movement, the 1930s was the era of the Neoclassical. And the woman? She was goddess divine.

With a post-stock market crash-depression and a dustbowl ensuing ,and a Second World War looming, the democratic ideals of Ancient Greece fueled the escapist arts of the era. In cinema (still black and white but now talkies), Jean Harlow, Claudette Colbert, and Joan Crawford pierced the screen with the impact their silken bias-cut goddess gowns made.

In fashion photography, a scene popularzed: a woman in a draped white gown standing by an Ionic column. In this decade, fashion photography made leaps and bounds. Vogue’s first-ever photographed cover arrived—a sporty image of a bathing beauty in a red suit by Edward Steichen for Vogue’s July 1, 1932 issue. The photo positioned its cover girl as an Olympian—even without the flowing ripples of a draped gown, she appeared as a Greco icon.

A breakdown of all these 1930s fashion trends and more, below.

Women’s Trends of the 1930s

The Bias Cut

Vionnet Draped the Women

“There is no escaping the present trend. Clothes are literally molded to the women’s body,” continues Vogue in 1931’s article “The Figure Then the Frock.” For the first time in Western fashion history, dresses skimmed a body that wasn’t sheathed in a sculpting base layer. Though the 1930s woman may have used a pliable girdle to smooth things out, this was not your Victorian-esque paper maché stiff waist snatcher. Bias-cut gowns (dresses draped at the angle of the grain of the textile’s weave) rose to prominence thanks to French couturier Madeleine Vionnet and her sumptuously uncomplex dresses that appeared both Hellenically columnar and curve-hugging. In an article dedicated to Vionnet’s new look in Vogue’s November 10, 1930 issue, titled “The Utter Simplicity of the Vionnet Line,” the Vogue writer waxes poetic on the look that was adopted by every major fashion house at the time—Chanel, Schiaparelli, Lanvin, Mainboucher.

“It is of the type first shown by Vionnet on mannequins wearing only a maillot beneath—an effect that is difficult to photograph successfully, but that has aroused great interest throughout the fashionable world. Not static like the classic robes of the Caryatids, these gowns have rhythm and movement and make the wearer look like a modern Diana or a winged Mercury.”

Model in a Vionnet design, 1931Photographed by George Hoyningen-Huene, Vogue, November 15, 1931

Backless Silhouettes Ruled

The Back Was the New Leg

As far as milestones in fashion history go, the backless dress was a new development in the 1930s; never before had women’s bare backs been on such display. Since hemlines returned to the floor, especially for eveningwear, designers had to give the woman a new patch of flesh to flash, and it was her glorious back. Many a Vogue articles were dedicated to what, exactly, women were meant to wear beneath these open dresses. But undergarment-makers quickly rose to the challenge and devised foundational pieces up to the task. Before she became a renowned photographer, Lee Miller was photographed by George Hoyningen-Huene in Paris in 1930 in an evening gown by Vionnet that revealed all but a tiny T-strap of fabric on her back. The photograph epitomized the backless trend.

Pants Became Popular

Wide-Legged Looks Entered the Chat

In the June 15, 1936 issue, Vogue partook in the great pant debate in an article dubbed “What About Pants? Where? When?” It read: “On they go—discussions about where and when women can wear slacks, shorts, culottes.” The consensus? For sport and for holiday, the pant was a “smart” choice. Pant proponent Toni Frissel—a Vogue caption writer turned fashion photographer who made a memorable mark capturing women in motion outdoors—often photographed women in pants, whether running on the beach or fishing on the coast. Couture pajama sets for the hostess (within the confines of her home) or linen plusfours at the beach were celebrated for their chicness but pants at your Upper East Side café for lunch? Not just yet. Designers who offered their takes on pants included Maggy Rouff and Schiaparelli.

Fashion In Film

Hollywood As Fashion Capital

MGM costume designer Gilbert Adrian almost single-handedly made the world look to Hollywood for fashion inspiration. Fashion icons were born as Hollywood studios invested in leading ladies and made sure they looked the part in custom fashions. In the superb “Does Hollywood Create?” article by Nancy Hardin in February 1, 1933, Vogue scrutinized how and if fashions emanated from the screen—or were they just copies of Parisian designs? “Only yesterday—Hollywood was a law unto itself. Its fashions were born and remained in Hollywood,” she writes before declaring: “Hollywood is originating fashion. The deity that rules over clothes knows that it was not always thus.”

See the angular shoulders of Greta Garbo costumes in 1931’s Mata Harri or the vampy dresses of Marlene Dietrich in 1932’s Shanghai Express. And then, of course, the frothy white organdie gown with ruffled sleeves worn by Joan Crawford in 1932’s Letty Lynton.

“Any list, however incomplete, of Hollywood-born clothes would be silly without mention of the ‘Letty Lynton’ dress,” Hardin continues. “Every little girl, all over the country, within two weeks of the release of Joan Crawford’s picture, felt she would die if she couldn’t have a dress like that.”

Rayon, Nylon, and Zippers

Fashion Gets Techy

Lest we all forget, the 1930s started off with a disastrous stock market crash in 1929—the Roaring Twenties came to a screeching halt. Though fashion tends to walk on the sunny side of the street, there was no escaping the fact that incomes were limited and thousands of Americans were in dire straights. For those able to participate in fashion, sartorial technological developments helped democratize fashion—especially the fiber Rayon (a cellulose-based fiber invented decades prior but only largely applied in fashion production from the 1930s onwards), which was used to create blousy silk-alternative crepe de chines in day dresses and more. Nylon, dubbed artificial silk or art silk, also became a popular alternative choice for silk stockings.

Vogue would feature rayon-based fashions in articles like “Luxuries for the Limited Income” and odes to the practical fiber in “Reign of Rayon.”

Zippers would also be incorporated into high fashion for the very first time. An advert from Lightning Zips and Schiaparelli announced the use of zippers in Schiaparelli’s 1935 autumn/winter collection for a “smooth, swift fastening.”

An advertisement for Courtaulds Limited, published in 1939Science & Society Picture Library/Getty Images

Surrealism in Fashion

Fashion Was Not Always What It Seemed

Second to the taste for neoclassicism in fashion was surrealism. Salvador Dalí became a regular contributor, blessing Vogue with otherworldly covers and several fashion illustrations in his signature not-what-it-seems storytelling. His biggest designer collaborator was Elsa Schiaparelli, whose trompe-l’œil “Tears” dress pattern was designed by none other than Dalí himself in 1938. Then were others like Christian Bérard and Jean Cocteau (see his shoe-hat for Schiaparelli). These cheeky fashions received mainstream media attention when, in 1937, Wallis Simpson was photographed by Cecil Beaton wearing a white Schiaparelli dress festooned with a large lobster handpainted by Dalí.

Vogue’s First Photographed Cover

1930s Fashion Through a Lens

Though fashion illustration had not fallen out of favor, the 1930s embraced and pushed the limits of fashion photography. Black-and-white photography filled the pages of Vogue since Mr. Condé Nast hired Baron Adolph de Meyer as a house photographer in 1913 to shoot portraits of models and aristocrats, and the medium continued to rise in popularity. Photography perfectly captured, and promoted the luster and drape of 1930s fashion, which an illustration could not convey.

In 1923, de Meyer was succeeded by Edward Steichen, who served as chief photographer for both Vogue and Vanity Fair until 1937. Steichen was responsible for the first-ever photographic cover of Vogue in 1932. By the end of the decade, almost every other cover was a photograph. Snaps from Horst P. Horst, Man Ray, Cecil Beaton, and Toni Frissel captured the easy elegance of the times.

Photographed by Edward Steichen, Vogue, July 1, 1932

Top Designers of the Era

Madeleine Vionnet, Elsa Schiaparelli, Coco Chanel, Edward Molyneux, Mainboucher, Jeanne Lanvin, Norman Hartnell, Valentina, Jacques Heim, Marcel Rochas, Alix (later Madame Grès), Maggy Rouff, Lucin Lelong, Robert Piguet, Jean Patou, Augustabernard

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Men’s Trends

Men had their muses, too! And like women, they were found on the big screen. See Clark Cable, with his spaghetti-thin mustache, glossy slick hair, and three-piece suit in 1934’s It Happened One Night. Then there was the dashing Cary Grant who doubled down on concepts that, menswear-wise, the Brits did it better. Saville Row Tailoring continued to lead the trends. Silhouettes slimmed down after the looser, baggy fits of the 1920s. Suits were worn with semi-accentuated waists to match the shift in silhouettes womenswear experienced. Edward VIII, then Prince of Wales, continued to be the poster child for all things stylishly English.

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In the Culture

The stock market crashed in 1929, then came a Great Depression, and a dustbowl. By 1933, the nation could at least toast to their health with the end of Prohibition. Culture-wise, film allowed for a much-needed inexpensive escape. Shirley Temple warmed hearts, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made films with dazzling choreography, and Nina Mae McKinney became one of the first Black stars on screen. Over in London, by 1936, Edward VII had abdicated the throne of England to wed the American Mrs. Wallis Simpson; both became fashion icons though their reputations were dubious and getting more so as World War II approached.